Hello again.
May has been spectacularly abundant out in the fields and garden. The rapid growth is amazing, especially since we have had some rain this year.
I’ve developed quite a relationship with a blackbird. He probably just wants food but I like to view him as a good friend. He comes and asks for mealworms multiple times a day and it’s been a joy to watch him feed up a very plump baby. He will literally look in the window in a marked manner and chirp until I cave in and feed him.
I am helpless against his wiles. I feel a proud birdy momma, and obviously the baby is here solely because of my mealworms. In fact, I’m going away for a couple of days shortly and I’m already in crisis about whether he will still love me when I get back. Ridiculous person that I am.
Sitting outside gently stitching is a joy. It’s grounding and soothing and I am so at home in my skin I can’t imagine a life now without some sort of hand-stitching beside me.
The figures I’m doing are coming along. Each one is very intensive. It seems to be my way. They have many layers and pieces to them and each is double-sided to be able to hang. It’s quite a feat to get these long solid forms manhandled to machine the edges together. I have to bring two tables together and clear space around me so that there is enough to rotate them in different directions as I go. I’ve broken four needles so far – oops! So I’ve ordered a pack of stronger ones and they seem to be doing the job. They are hard to photograph as there is a lot of texture and raised surface treatment you can’t see. They average about 80cm high but I’m starting some taller ones.
I shall be spending a few days with Gizella Warburton in August at a local pottery studio I’ve hired so she can teach me some fundamentals of hardened fabric vessels for my Arts Council Project. Our time together will be a kick-starter for further personal research with on-line mentoring to support development of a set of samples and ideas using various materials and techniques. I hope to have more to share as the project takes off. Post project, this should stand me in good stead for creating some larger work which I feel quite excited about.
You can find Gizella’s beautiful work here.
I have taken the decision to retire from teaching workshops so next year will be my final one. I have loved every minute of it but when you know, you know, and it’s time for some space for new things to evolve and some family commitments we are expecting over the next couple of years. The timing of the project should be great in that I hope to have a new direction to explore as other things finish. I also want to re-ignite my painting which is taking a back seat presently. As ever, I think these two things will inform each other especially around some mark-making I wish to include on future vessels.
I’m chatting to someone about a space for an exhibition. This has been a drive for several years. I would like an opportunity to share what’s been important to me over the years – the story and insights behind a piece. If that can happen somewhere I will be a very happy bunny! The notion of ‘home’ has been a prominent thread for me and I realise this also applies to work being at home in a space. Much of my work is small scale and (I think) has more of a gentle, inward energy – maybe it needs to feel safe somewhere? Finding not only an available space but one that feels right is an unexpectedly curious thought process. If and when it finds its home, I will let you know!
So some potential change in the air, but change I’m excited about. We humans never find this easy I’d like to think that as artists, we are perhaps a little more familiar with the unknown.
Embrace uncertainty. Some of the most beautiful chapters in our lives won’t have a title
until much later. Bob Goff.
Rachael Singleton 